Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers tells Raheem Sterling to focus on football and stay out of trouble

Brendan Rodgers has warned teenager Raheem Sterling to stabilise his life off
the pitch and regain his focus on it.

On the ball: Liverpool's Raheem Sterling has been told by his manager to sort out his off-field problemsPhoto: GETTY IMAGES

By Chris Bascombe and Daniel Johnson

11:00PM BST 26 Sep 2013

Sterling, widely tipped to become one of the most exciting talents in English football, has struggled to justify the hype since his initial breakthrough at the start of last season.

He has been limited to substitute appearances so far this campaign and was in court last week, cleared of charges of common assault against his girlfriend.

“He needs to have a clear mind in everything in his life,” said Rodgers.

“We mustn’t forget he is 18. We have an 18- and 17-year-old on the bench at the moment. He needs to stabilise his life, understand the remarkable opportunity he has at one of the biggest clubs in the world and focus everything on his career. Once he does that and he is clear in his mind, he has no distraction and we can get to the level of performance of the first four or five months of last year.”

Although there are question marks as to whether the most recent case should have reached court given the rapid manner in which it collapsed, it has not been an isolated brush with authority for the youngster.

Earlier this week, another court case involving Sterling was adjourned. He is charged with failing to inform the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency that he had sold his Mercedes Benz. That case will be heard in October and although minor, carrying a possible £55 fine, it adds to a perception of Sterling being unable to stay out of trouble. That is a concern for his manager, who believes the youngster has the capacity to be a star for club and country.

Rodgers said: “He is a good boy and had lots going on last year when he was put in the spotlight and he did well but now it’s about him focusing on his football.”

The Liverpool manager said he had no qualms about keeping Sterling in his squad, particularly when he featured against Southampton last weekend merely 24 hours after being cleared of assault.

Suárez’s indiscretions during his three-year Anfield career have included being banned for eight matches plus a fine of £40,000 for racially abusing Manchester United’s Patrice Evra and a 10-match suspension for biting Branislav Ivanovic of Chelsea.

“It doesn’t matter whether it’s a player incident or any incident that makes big headlines for negative reasons, it is always going to be damaging,” said Ayre. “It’s not damaging in the sense that it doesn’t hugely affect our commercial business. Liverpool football club has a huge tradition and any time someone steps out of line, whether it’s a player, or a fan, or whatever it is, that’s always going to be an issue.

“I’m not saying Luis has made a huge damaging on the brand, but every time you have a negative issue like that particular one then of course it’s damaging. But it’s important to put that right and restore the integrity of the football club and that’s what we did.”

Suárez returned for the 1-0 Capital One Cup defeat by Manchester United, immediately showing his qualities. Ayre said the striker has been working on improving his on-field persona.

“Luis is a street fighter, a larger than life character,” said Ayre. “Nobody is condoning any bad behaviour but it’s just something you have to deal with. He is what he is and he’s the character that he is, and you just have to try and harness that.

“We’ve worked a lot with Luis since the last incident with Ivanovic and he’s responded well.”